Hi there!My name is Eric Drader and i am a lifetime Nissan Enthusiast! I just moved myself to the west coast (BEAUTIFULVictoria,BC) for no good reason, and it was really hard. So i picked up this odd little datsun as a gift to myself for my 23rd birthday!! I love it, I've always wanted a unique older 70's datsun, and this one I got cheap because the starter went on the kid who owned it. I am looking for more information on it, so i tracked down this forum! haha

It's a 1979 Canadian Datsun 510, with an L20B in it. Its my first time with a 4- speed, so thats been fun! The Engine actually runs amazing, and pulls really hard. Theres no big leaks or anything, just bit from the valve cover but i ordered a gasket already.

I cant seem to find much information on this car, let alone pictures, and ESPECIALLY one with an 4 speed L20B.My plans are to patch it up, and enjoy driving her through beautiful BC every day that god/the po-lice will let me! I have a four door R32 that i drift with, and it has gotten a bit too rowdy for street driving, haha.

Im mostly just curious to know more about its background, and or rarity, and keep a detailed build somewhere.

If you could add your location into your avatar, it would be most appreciated.

You have an interesting Nissan collection. The 4 dr Skyline is a bit of an oddball, but certainly worthy for sure.

But to answer your question of the A510; it was a formidable rally car in it's day, amazing more consecutive wins on the. African Safari Rally than any other single make. This done mostly in the hands of Shekar Metta.Outside of rally in East Africa, the car did have a noteworthy lifeline Australia under the badge Stanza, in both road racing and rally. The A510 did come with a number of formidable power plants as well from the factory, none of which came to our shores. I believe this car in 78 got the very limited production L-Series twin cam engine, of which maybe a dozen existed. When outlawed but the rule makers, the next step was the late generation FIA head on the L20B making north of 250 hp. This was then succeeded by the 240RS power plant, a 2400 cc FJ motor both N/A (250+ hp) and turbocharged (300+hp) which was "borrowed" from the Sylvia platform. Needless to say, all of the above plants put our L20B, Z20 and finally Z22 engines (all under 120 hp) to shame! And I might add all of these wonderful rally A510's....we're 4 door cars!.

nawslew wrote:fascinating!! Thank you!!! what is the late generation FIA head you mentioned? Is it do'able?

The head/manifold are near unobtainium and priced accordingly. Expect to pay 1500 and up for a head core even if you found one for sale. Providing you found one, this head is a full race set up, huge ports, massive runners and is matched only to an IR induction set up, not very streetable. Atleast it would not be that enjoyable to drive.

Hello Eric, welcome to The Realm. As Byron indicates, back in the day the HL510 was a successful racer. Unfortunately for you, it wasn't extremely successful as a production car, and most of the production run has since succumbed to a lack of enthusiasm in the following years. That's recently seen a bit of turn around, with people looking for something a bit vintage and finding available cars such as yours, but you will be dealing with a lack of body and trim parts.

To help you on your path, I strongly recommend you pick up the "How To Keep Your Datsun Alive" service manual. It will be a great help with anything mechanical on your car. That book and some other basic suggestions are mentioned here:

Within that link also resides links to The 510 Archives. Particular attention should be directed to the back issues of The Dime, Quarterly, because this issue will give you all you need to know about L-series heads:

DQ Volume 12 Issue 2 - Tech How-To: L-series Cylinder Head Guide — Nissan produced many different cylinder heads that will bolt to the L-series block. As these parts become harder to find, it is important to know what you need or what you want before shelling out cash to buy a used piece. DQ lays it all out, including information on unobtainium heads.

The FIA head bolts on to the L block, so no issue there. The problems with that setup include cost (likely a few hundred percent more than you paid for your HL510), finding a complete setup (the head bolts on, but everything that bolts to the head is unique), and driving it on the street (the only manifold made for the FIA head is for 50mm Mikunis...so if you think you can deal with an ancient 2.0L engine running 50mm carbs on the street, this might be for you!).

On the flip side, there's PLENTY you can do with your L20B to hop it up and make decent (but not staggering) power. All depends on your skill and budget. Lots to read up on, including:

DQ Volume 12 Issue 3 - Tech How-To: Cylinder Head Modifications - An inside look at cylinder head modifications. Bruce Godfry details some basic steps to allow the home mechanic to achieve 80% of professional flowing results. It is much more than “port and polish.”

Because when you spend a silly amount of money on a silly, trivial thing that will help you not one jot, you are demonstrating that you have a soul and a heart and that you are the sort of person who has no time for Which? magazine. – Jeremy Clarkson

Also check out the "How To Modify" book in the Factory Information section of The 510 Archives (where the DQ backissues are). 160-some pages of modification information, some of which applies directly (engine) and some of which can give you good ideas (suspension).

Because when you spend a silly amount of money on a silly, trivial thing that will help you not one jot, you are demonstrating that you have a soul and a heart and that you are the sort of person who has no time for Which? magazine. – Jeremy Clarkson